CIS 3260 – Intro to Programming with C#

Menus and Common

Dialog Boxes

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 Create menus and submenus for program

control
 Display and use the Windows common dialog
boxes

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 Menu Bar
◦ Menus that drop down to display a list of menu
items
 Menu items are controls with properties and events
 Each menu item has a Name and Text property and a
Click event (similar to a button)
 Easy to create menus for a Windows form
using Visual Studio's Menu Designer
◦ Menus look and behave like standard Windows
menus

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Dr. David McDonald Chapter 5 – Page 1

CIS 3260 – Intro to Programming with C#

 Group menu items

according to their
purpose
 Draws a bar across
the entire menu
 To create a separator
bar, add a new menu
item and click on its
drop-down arrow
 Select Separator
or type a single
hyphen in the Menu
Designer
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 Menu items have

Enabled property set
to true by default
 Enabled menu items
appear in black text
and can be selected
 Disabled items are
not available
 Enabled property can
be set at design time
or run time, in code
instructionsToolStripMenuItem.Enabled = false;

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 Menu items have

Checked property
set to false by
default
 A check mark next
to a menu item
indicates the option
is selected
 Checked property
can be set at design
time or in code summaryToolStripMenuItem.Checked = true;

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Dr. David McDonald Chapter 5 – Page 2

CIS 3260 – Intro to Programming with C#

 Set a menu item’s initial Checked property

in the Properties window
 To change the menu item’s state in code,
set its Checked property to true or false
if (summaryToolStripMenuItem.Checked)
{
// Uncheck the summary menu item.
summaryToolStripMenuItem.Checked = false;
}
else
{
//Check the summary menu item.
summaryToolStripMenuItem.Checked = true;
}

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 Many users prefer to use keyboard shortcuts

for selecting menu items
 To set keyboard shortcuts
◦ Select the menu item in the designer
◦ In the Properties window, select the ShortcutKeys
property
◦ Make a choice from the drop-down list
◦ Set ShowShortcutKeys property to false to prevent a
shortcut from showing on the menu

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 Predefined standard dialog boxes

◦ Specifying colors and fonts
◦ Opening, saving and browsing for files
 Place the desired common dialog component
from the Dialogs tab of the toolbox in the
Component Tray
◦ Default names for the components are fine

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Dr. David McDonald Chapter 5 – Page 3

CIS 3260 – Intro to Programming with C#

 Display the dialog box at run time using the

ShowDialog method
 The dialogObject is the name of the common
dialog component
 Write code to show the dialog in the event
handler for a menu item or button

colorDialog1.ShowDialog();
fontDialog1.ShowDialog();

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 A dialog box is said to be modal

◦ The box stays on top of the application and must
be responded to
◦ Use the ShowDialog method to display a dialog box,
which is a window displayed modally
 A window that does not require response is
said to be modeless
◦ Use the Show method to display a modeless window

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 Color selected in the Color dialog box is

stored in the Color property
 Color property can be assigned to another
object, such as a control
◦ Display dialog box with ShowDialog method
◦ User responds to dialog box
◦ Use the Color property
colorDialog1.ShowDialog();
titleLabel.ForeColor = colorDialog1.Color;

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Dr. David McDonald Chapter 5 – Page 4

CIS 3260 – Intro to Programming with C#

 Color selected in the Color dialog box is

stored in the Color property
 Color property can be assigned to another
object, such as a control
◦ Display dialog box with ShowDialog method
◦ User responds to dialog box
◦ Use the Color property
colorDialog1.ShowDialog();
titleLabel.ForeColor = colorDialog1.Color;

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 The Font common

dialog box
displays available
fonts for the
system display
 After the user
makes a selection,
the Font property
can be assigned to
other objects on fontDialog1.ShowDialog();
the form titleLabel.Font = fontDialog1.Font;

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 Before executing the ShowDialog method,

assign the existing values of the object's
properties
 When the dialog box appears, the current
values will be selected
 If the user presses Cancel, property setting
for the objects will remain unchanged

colorDialog1.Color = titleLabel.ForeColor; fontDialog1.Font = titleLabel.Font;

colorDialog1.ShowDialog(); fontDialog1.ShowDialog();
titleLabel.ForeColor = colorDialog1.Color; titleLabel.Font = fontDialog1.Font;

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Dr. David McDonald Chapter 5 – Page 5